Mobility has played a central role in discussions of Linearbandkeramik (LBK) social organisation, particularly sex-differentiated residence, exogamy, and the formation of early farming communities. This study reassesses mobility at the Early Neolithic cemetery of Nitra-Horné Krškany (western Slovakia), based on 50 individuals, through an expanded isotopic and chronological dataset. We present new strontium isotope measurements, including third molars, and four radiocarbon dates, integrating them with previously published isotope data and funerary evidence to refine the scale, life-course patterning, and social dimensions of mobility at Nitra and compare them with Vedrovice-Široká u lesa in neighbouring Moravia. Results confirm a homogeneous strontium isotope distribution at Nitra-Horné Krškany, with most individuals falling within the local range. However, some individuals display childhood strontium signatures outside the Nitra cluster. All individuals classified as non-local are female, suggesting that mobility was structured by sex. Third molar evidence indicates that some non-local females had not entered the Nitra isotopic environment by later childhood or adolescence, whereas another individual, who died between late adolescence and early adulthood, already shows a non-local signature in forming enamel. Female mobility occurred at different life stages. Non-local females were not differentiated from local individuals in collagen nitrogen values or grave-good categories. Comparison with Vedrovice-Široká u lesa reveals a recurrent association between female individuals and non-local strontium signatures, but differences in isotopic variability and relationships with nitrogen values and funerary assemblages. These findings support an emerging view of LBK mobility as organised through locally specific practices rather than a single uniform model.
While the western Fertile Crescent has long dominated narratives of Neolithization, the Iranian Plateau remained largely overlooked, despite growing evidence of independent domestication in the Zagros and distinctive diffusion patterns. This shift in perspective warrants closer examination of how postglacial climatic change reshaped regional biodiversity and, in turn, the subsistence and timber management strategies of early Neolithic communities. We present new insights from the anthracological investigation of five Neolithic (Early Holocene) sites located in the Shahroud and Bastam plains,in the northeastern part of the Iranian plateau,covering the period of approximately9,100 to 6,900 cal yr BP (7,150–4,950 ca yr BCE).The analysis identified21 woody taxafrom at least four distinct habitats: gallery forests, open scrub, open xeromorphic shrublands,and Hyrcanian montane forests.Whereas plant communities available in the vicinity of the sites seem to have been preferred, wood was also occasionally collected at a certain distance. The anthracological assemblage displays a wide range of plants belonging to an ecotone from the dry-adapted Irano-Turanian to temperate humid Hyrcanian trees, reminiscent of the present-day situation.Supported by archaeozoological data from the same sites,our results indicate that the increasing moisture at the onset of the Holocene appears to have facilitated the development of the open woodlands and shrublands available for human exploitation.This research provides new insights intowood exploitation strategiesand contributes to current knowledge on the daily life of the first sedentary agro-pastoral communities in the interior Western Asia.
Late Gravettian occupations north of the Carpathians remain rare and poorly understood, limiting current interpretations of hunter-gatherer diversity in Central Europe before the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM). This paper presents the results of multidisciplinary research conducted at Pod Oknem Cave in southern Poland, where two episodes of Upper Palaeolithic human activity were identified within a well-preserved Pleistocene stratigraphic sequence.The most important assemblage, dated to 27–29 ka calBP, consists of a small but distinctive set of lithic artefacts including microlithic lunates and a carinated piece. Despite its limited size, the assemblage displays technological and typological features previously unknown in Late Gravettian contexts north of the Carpathians. Comparative analysis demonstrates that the Pod Oknem assemblage has no close parallels among currently known Central European Late Gravettian industries. However, partial analogies may be observed with microlithic industries from Moravany-Žakovská in Slovakia and with younger Epiaurignacian assemblages of LGM chronology known from the north Pontic region and Central Europe, where retouched microliths are associated with carinated cores. The results expand the known variability of Late Gravettian technological adaptations and raise new questions concerning mobility, innovation, and cultural interactions among hunter-gatherer groups immediately preceding the Last Glacial Maximum, while also demonstrating the importance of high-resolution excavation and recovery methods for identifying ephemeral archaeological occupations. It also raises the question of the extent to which the specific site function might determine the morphology of the assemblage.
